BICOM

Israel and Turkey yesterday agreed to deepen their cooperation in the energy sector during the first ministerial-level meeting between the two countries in six years.

Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz met Turkey’s Energy Minister Berat Albayrak in Istanbul. A statement from Steinitz’s office said that “the two ministers held a detailed discussion on the possibility of exporting natural gas from Israel to Turkey and agreed to advance dialogue on this issue”.

Steinitz himself said that “the meeting today is the beginning” of a normalisation process between Israel and Turkey and that “the result, the economic results, should be to the benefit of the people of Turkey and Israel”.

Steinitz went on to elaborate, referring specifically to Israel’s nascent natural gas industry: “This is a lot of gas, much more than we can consume… Exporting gas to our neighbours in the region or to Europe through different pipelines, this is of course very important and of course one of the important options is connecting to Europe through a pipeline to Turkey.”

He added that such cooperation could also include supplying gas to the Hamas-held Gaza Strip, saying that “if the Turkish government and companies are involved in improving the life of ordinary people in Gaza… we will do our best to enable this”.

In June, Israel and Turkey agreed a reconciliation deal to restore diplomatic relations. In 2010, the previously warm relationship between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the deaths of ten Turkish citizens on the Gaza-bound protest ship, the Mavi Marmara. Israel has agreed to pay compensation to the families and will allow Turkish aid and infrastructure projects in the Gaza Strip. In return, Turkey will not allow itself to be used as a base for terror groups such as Hamas and bilateral relations with Israel will be extended.

Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for Turkey’s President Erdogan, said yesterday that the two countries will exchange ambassadors within the coming week to ten days.